QClipboard features some convenience functions to access common data types: setText() allows the exchange of Unicode text and setPixmap() and setImage() allows the exchange of QPixmaps and QImages between applications. The setMimeData() function is the ultimate in flexibility: it allows you to add any QMimeData into the clipboard. There are corresponding getters for each of these, e.g. text(), image() and pixmap(). You can clear the clipboard by calling clear().

Notes for X11 Users

The X11 Window System has the concept of a separate selection and clipboard. When text is selected, it is immediately available as the global mouse selection. The global mouse selection may later be copied to the clipboard. By convention, the middle mouse button is used to paste the global mouse selection.

X11 also has the concept of ownership; if you change the selection within a window, X11 will only notify the owner and the previous owner of the change, i.e. it will not notify all applications that the selection or clipboard data changed.

Lastly, the X11 clipboard is event driven, i.e. the clipboard will not function properly if the event loop is not running. Similarly, it is recommended that the contents of the clipboard are stored or retrieved in direct response to user-input events, e.g. mouse button or key presses and releases. You should not store or retrieve the clipboard contents in response to timer or non-user-input events.

Notes for Mac OS X Users

Mac OS X supports a separate find buffer that holds the current search string in Find operations. This find clipboard can be accessed by specifying the FindBuffer mode.

Notes for Windows and Mac OS X Users

Windows and Mac OS X do not support the global mouse selection; they only supports the global clipboard, i.e. they only add text to the clipboard when an explicit copy or cut is made.

Windows and Mac OS X does not have the concept of ownership; the clipboard is a fully global resource so all applications are notified of changes.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, this function clears the the global clipboard contents. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, this function clears the global mouse selection contents. If mode is QClipboard::FindBuffer, this function clears the search string buffer.

Returns the clipboard image, or returns a null image if the clipboard does not contain an image or if it contains an image in an unsupported image format.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the image is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the image is retrieved from the global mouse selection.

Returns a reference to a QMimeData representation of the current clipboard data.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the data is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the data is retrieved from the global mouse selection. If mode is QClipboard::FindBuffer, the data is retrieved from the search string buffer.

The text(), image(), and pixmap() functions are simpler wrappers for retrieving text, image, and pixmap data.

bool QClipboard::ownsSelection () const

Returns the clipboard pixmap, or null if the clipboard does not contain a pixmap. Note that this can lose information. For example, if the image is 24-bit and the display is 8-bit, the result is converted to 8 bits, and if the image has an alpha channel, the result just has a mask.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the pixmap is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the pixmap is retrieved from the global mouse selection.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the image is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the data is stored in the global mouse selection.

Sets the clipboard data to src. Ownership of the data is transferred to the clipboard. If you want to remove the data either call clear() or call setMimeData() again with new data.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the data is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the data is stored in the global mouse selection. If mode is QClipboard::FindBuffer, the data is stored in the search string buffer.

Copies pixmap into the clipboard. Note that this is slower than setImage() because it needs to convert the QPixmap to a QImage first.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the pixmap is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the pixmap is stored in the global mouse selection.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the text is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the text is stored in the global mouse selection. If mode is QClipboard::FindBuffer, the text is stored in the search string buffer.

bool QClipboard::supportsSelection () const

Returns the clipboard text as plain text, or an empty string if the clipboard does not contain any text.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the text is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the text is retrieved from the global mouse selection. If mode is QClipboard::FindBuffer, the text is retrieved from the search string buffer.

Returns the clipboard text in subtype subtype, or an empty string if the clipboard does not contain any text. If subtype is null, any subtype is acceptable, and subtype is set to the chosen subtype.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is QClipboard::Clipboard, the text is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is QClipboard::Selection, the text is retrieved from the global mouse selection.

Common values for subtype are "plain" and "html".

Note that calling this function repeatedly, for instance from a key event handler, may be slow. In such cases, you should use the dataChanged() signal instead.